A reminder that there’s lots of new life out there these days. Gives me hope.
I had something very interesting that I was going to write, but then I had to wait for my laptop to warm up, and then I had to wait for Microsoft Word to load. It took a long time because I am trying to finish final edits on my book, and that is a long document which I try to keep active, so by the time Word finally opened, I had forgotten all the things I was going to write that were brilliant. So instead I spent about an hour editing my book, which was probably a better use of my time, come to think of it.
(In case you are interested, my book “Ordinary Holy: Searching for Grace in the Everyday” comes in at just over 230 pages and is made up of 100 journal-like reflections. Some of the entries are a little vulnerable. Some are silly. Some are full of gratitude. Kind of like life, no?)
So I have a hard copy of something that looks like a book. I printed a few preliminary copies last November, so I could see how the whole thing came together in book form. A few generous souls volunteered to read that first version and gave me valuable feedback. I have been trying to make simple changes and edits since then; it has been a slog. The self-publishing company that I used recently abandoned the book building platform that helped me create the initial version of my book. Instead of being able to make changes in my online account with them, my only option now is to work with a PDF that they sent me.
So I just need to make changes in a PDF. Surely this must not be so very difficult?
My brilliant and generous friend who is also a professional graphic designer sighed and shook her head when I asked her this. Because basically, it is very difficult.
Luckily for me, my brilliant and generous friend is going to help me. We transferred the PDF to a Word document, and I am doing my best to make edits there. I got a lot done today. When I’m finished, she’ll help me get the book ready to go again. I will need her assistance, because I already see that some of the changes I’ve made messed up margins and page numbers, and it does not look so book-like anymore. Thankfully, since she is a professional, she has tools. Also, she is designing the cover. I saw a sneak peek of what she’s working on: it’s going to be beautiful.
This book is something I’ve worked on for years. I worked on it before COVID, through COVID, through three different online writing workshops, through three different presidential administrations. It’s time to let it go.
After college, I had an internship with a progressive national Catholic newspaper in their Washington, D.C bureau. Arthur Jones, longtime editor of the paper, used to tell me when we were approaching a deadline, “Robin, we’ve come to the point where if it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing poorly.” I’m long past that point with this book. It will be what it will be. If a typo or two sneaks through, it can be fixed in the future, or not. There’s an old saying (which some on the internet say is a myth) that the Amish purposefully make a mistake in their quilts, because only the good Lord is perfect. This book will not be perfect, and that will be just fine.
But it’s coming. We hope to have it available by September 1 of this year. You’ll be able to purchase it on my website (which would be a lovely way to support my writing), and also on Amazon, BN.com, and wherever you buy your books. There! A goal!
Thanks for reading this update and for your encouragement. I’m not giving up, but boy, this birthing process has been rough. Feel free to ask me how it’s going in your notes or if we are lucky to run into each other in real life. I’ll keep you posted.
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